Monday, 27th October 2014
Steve w/ Tesla 1987
Def Leppard guitarist Steve Clark played his last show with the band 26 years ago today on 27th October 1988 in Tacoma, WA, USA.
The last show of the Hysteria world tour took place at the Tacoma Dome in front of almost 30,000 fans. The largest indoor attendance of the tour.
Steve played his first show with the band on 18th July 1978 at Westfield School. The first ever public concert appearance by Def Leppard. He sadly died in January 1991 after a well documented struggle with alcoholism.
Tesla who supported the band for over 100 shows in 1987/1988 dedicated a song to Steve on their album 'Psychotic Supper' which came out in August 1991. The track was titled 'Song & Emotion' and dedicated ("To Our Friend Steve Steamin' Clark") on the back cover. They appeared on Hangin' With MTV in May 1992 playing a fantastic live version of this song and also explained how it came about. Watch two video clips below as posted by Redrumrock1963.
Hysteria Tour - Steve Clark On Stage in Tacoma 1988 & w/ Tesla in 1987
Hangin' With MTV - Tesla Interview Quotes
Jeff Keith - "The idea of the song was in the vein of someone that may be it could be taking their life in the wrong direction and they just, they got that music in their soul and they can't stop. It's like actually seeing the guys on the street corners there playing with their saxophone boxes open and that's what really inspired me for the song because those guys just can't stop and they'll do it till the day they die. And then it just so happened that you know the tragedy with Steve and it fit in with him so well because he was you know a sweet guy but just."
Frank - "And we toured with them for a year and became pretty close with him."
Tommy - "And the whole song too when we first came over. We had even thought it kind of had a little bit of a Def Leppard kind of colour to it and then like when we got in the studio me and Frank when we played the solos we kind of thought well how would Steve kinda do this jam and that's kinda how we vibed it."
Frank - "Yeah the guitar approach on it is Def Leppard."
Tommy - "It's how Steve would have played it."
Jeff - "So it started out as the guy on the corner but then it started involving Steve."
- Video Source - youtube.com/Redrumrock1963
- Def Leppard - Tacoma 1988 Show Page
- Def Leppard - Historia/In The Round-In Your Face
- Related News - 27th October 2014